  Surgutneft (a branch of Surgutneftegaz oil company) is the oldest oil and gas extraction company in Western Siberia (Surgut City, Russia). The company has recently celebrated its 40th anniversary. In 2003, at the booster pump station 1 of the Piltanskoye oil field, during a planned reconstruction a new TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI based control system was successfully implemented.
By the day of the new booster pump station commissioning , not only controllers and servers but also all remaining control equipment, including gauges, actuators and data transmission lines were renewed. Therefore, by the moment of the control system setup, the builder staff were still working at the control room where operator HMI workstations and cabinets with field devices would have to be installed. The electric wiring had not been even laid to the these cabinets. And, nevertheless, engineers of the АТ Company (Moscow, Russia), AdAstrA’s authorized system integrator, with assistance of the Surgutneft control and instrumentation service within the shortest time, have set up the control system and launched it in the trial operation mode. The successful implementation would undoubtedly be impossible without an optimal selection of basic software: SCADA/HMI system TRACE MODE by AdAstrA Research Group.
 The Surgutneft oil and gas extraction department has chosen for the booster pump station-1 the М2000 PLCs connected through the RS-485 interface. The 8 PID-loops implemented in the M2000 carry out the following controls:
- maintaining of the specified level of liquid in the S-1/1 and S-1/2 separators using controllable pneumatic outlet valves;
- maintaining of the specified liquid level in the S-2/1 and S-2/2 separators using frequency converters controlling the pump capacity;
- maintaining of the specified pressure in the G1 gas separator;
- maintaining of the specified inlet pressure for the G3 gas separator;
- maintaining of the specified gas outlet pressure for the Heater-Treater installation;
- maintaining of the specified pressure at the separation stage 2 (S-2/1, S-2/2);
- maintaining of the specified gas pressure at the molecular gate valve.
Besides the PID control, other control technologies are also used in the Surgutneft oil and gas  extraction department’s booster pump station 1 control system:
- digital regulator of the liquid level in draining vessels;
- semiautomatic control of condensate discharge from hot wells;
- manual control of electrical gate valves;
- manual control of pumps.
In addition, М2000 controllers carry out the acquisition of data from pressure, temperature and current gauges. Via one of the controllers (master in the RS-485 network), data are supplied, via the RS-232 interface, to the computer, on which the SCADA server, i.e.the TRACE MODE Real Time Monitor, is installed, providing HMI features.
The main HMI screen is a simplified mnemonic diagram including all basic booster pump station units.
On the main screen, the operator can view real values of basic process parameters, change the regulator setpoints and monitor the PID-loop operation. If necessary, the operator can switch off the automatic control and change over to the manual actuator control mode. The developers of  the booster pump station-1 control system main screen solved a hard ergonomic problem how to display all necessary process information and at the same time not to overload the screen by excessive interface elements. In order to solve this problem, the TRACE MODE graphical objects visibility control feature has been used, by means of which the PID-loop settings and the condensate discharge control have been arranged as pop-up windows.
Apart from regulation parameters, the indication of the following idexes has been arranged on the booster pump station-1 MPCS main screen:
- booster pump station inlet liquid pressure;
- booster pump station outlet oil pressure and temperature;
- oil pump outlet pressure;
- liquid level in the G1 gas separator, R1, RO-1, RO-2, RV1, RV2 reservoirs and drainage tanks;
- limiting liquid levels in the separation reservoirs of Stages I and II, G1, G2, G3 gas separators, K2 hot well, R1, RO-1, RO-2, RV1, RV2 reservoirs and drainage tanks;
- limiting pressure values in the separation Stage II, G1, G2, G3 gas separators;
- gas content gauges in the oil pump and reagent service unit rooms and a number of auxiliary signals.
All analog signals are provided with individual break indicators. That enables the booster pump station operators to monitor system operability visually.
In order to display charts - the historic trends of pressure and liquid level - the system was provided with a separate screen - to which a convenient navigation was arranged by means of a key panel in the bottom screen area. In order to adjust PID-loops and conduct routine maintenance and repairs, special screens have been developed for each М2000 controller. Separate screens have also been allocated for alarm reports, pump control and gate valve control. A sound alarm signalling with acknowledgement has been arranged for emergency digital signals. A siren sound was used alarms.
Upon expiration of two weeks of arduous labour, the system was commissioned for pilot commercial operation.
The next stage of setup works included automation of the group pump station. This meant connection of the Gamma-7 level measuring controllers as well as addition of a number of digital and analog gauges to the operating booster pump station control system. At the second stage, main difficulties were caused by the works at the “living” device with round-the-clock operation; therefore, the setup work were finished after two weeks. It should be noted that controllers by different manufacturers (М2000, Gamma-7) have been integrated into the system but it did not cause any difficulties as all necessary drivers were supplied free of charge with the SCADA/HMI system TRACE MODE .
Totally, about 650 TRACE MODE channels (tags) were used in the Surgutneft’s booster pump station-1 control system. The development and the setup of the project software have taken 2 man-months. The control system maintenance is carried out by the Surgutneft oil and gas extraction department’s control engineering service, one engineer permanently works at the booster pump station, which responsibilities include maintenance of both the control system software and hardware.
Afterwards the TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI based control system was successfully integrated into a Surgutneftegaz OJSC’s corporate informational system. The use of TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI has shown the advantages of this software. The users pointed out the ease of modifications of the system, for example, when a new gauge was added. The maintenance of the TRACE MODE SCADA/HMI based control system is significantly cheaper because it does not require inspections of the control engineers from the head department – all necessary add-on’s may be done by the local staff. |
